Posts from — September 2008

Literal translation: Welcome to Ireland. Explanation here.

With every application for this job (third from top).

Honestly, if you’re considering joining the intelligence services, and the place you look first is the Guardian Jobs site, perhaps you’ve already failed the entrance exam.

Do pay attention, 007.

No doubt some of you are coming to the site this morning via Mulley.net. Welcome, wipe your feet, come on in.

After Damien contacted me about his diagnosis with MS, I had it in my head to make use of his high profile to raise awareness of the condition as best we could.

There’s a saying about Volvos – “They’re boxy but they’re good”.

The quote comes from an old Dudley Moore film, Crazy People, about an ad executive who loses it, ends up in an asylum and ends up writing ‘honest’ ads that manage to strike a chord. Hence: Volvos – they’re boxy but they’re good. Were he writing about Volvo 70s, the race yachts, the ‘boxy but good’ line would still stand up. They’re not pretty, but they do the job they were designed for.

Below the fold there’s a video of the OLD Volvo Ocean Race boats, showing how they tackled the rough stuff. These buys punch boat-shaped holes in the ocean at alarming intervals and breackneck speeds. There’s no airbags or crumple zones on these suckers, just hard carbon fibre and salt water.

I hitched a ride on one of the new ones to get a glimpse of life sailing on the edge. The feature is here. (August 17, 2008)

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There are few people that you meet that are truly inspirational, and maybe I’m spoilt in this regard.  A slew of my friends have gone to the Olympics. These people are all impressive in terms of their dedication, perseverance, and sheer hard work.

But Mark Pollock makes them all look like panises. Fairies. Wimpy little feebletons. Go away and cry to your mammies. Mark is the hardass.

Yeah, they’ve all endured and sacrificed for their sport, and still excelled. None of this is in dispute.  But none have overcome disabilities worse than apathy or dyslexia.

Mark, once one of the country’s most promising collegiate rowers, is now one of Ireland’s top adventure sportsmen. He makes a healthy living out of it, too, speaking to crowds about what it takes to get to the start line, never mind the finish line, of the world’s toughest races.

And Mark does it all from a darker, bleaker perspective than the rest of us. Mark is blind – fully blind. His retinas detached while he was training for intervarsity rowing, and this year he ‘celebrates’ ten years of blindness – by racing to the South Pole.

Of Course.

Read it here.

Having come in from a night people-watching in the Odeon, I can safely say that examining the human race is one of the most interestng uses of time there is. What a strange, lonely crowd a singles bar attracts, all puffed chests and plumage. Bizarre, from the perspective of someone from smug coupledom.

Who am i to judge, though? Rather, let people describe themselves in their own words, as I have done in the Sunday Business Post’s First Person slot this past month.

Included are cabaret singer Camille O’Sullivan, Jackass star Chris Pontius, and Mr Gay Ireland, Barry Meegan. Enjoy.

Chris Pontius, August 03, 2008

Camille, August 10, 2008

Barry Meegan, August 24, 2008.